


I Believe You

by slowstitch



Series: I'll Find You [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mild Gore, More angst, but everyone is dead, sadness and tears, the war is won
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 09:23:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slowstitch/pseuds/slowstitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fight is won, the titans and their source have been eradicated and Eren is left desperately trying to reassure himself it had been worth it.<br/>Based on the song 'Laughter Lines' by Bastille.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Believe You

_As you held me down, you said_  
 _I'll see you in the future when we're older_  
 _and we are full of stories to be told_  
 _cross my heart and hope to die_  
 _I'll see you with your laughter lines_

* * *

_  
_Eren could hardly feel anything anymore. The gaping maw that was once his stomach barely stung. The ragged stumps that had once been his left leg and arm were hardly aching any more. He absently noted that there was no steam rising from his wounds although his bleeding had stopped but didn't waste the effort on pondering on what it meant. He'd lost too much blood already to hope he was bouncing back from this one.

The only thing Eren felt was the way his heart twisted and clenched as he tried to reassure himself it had been worth it. 

They had taken out the last few titans, a nasty group of deviants protecting a group of 10-15m types and with the intel Historia had provided them and the knowledge they had discovered locked away in Eren's basement, victory had been claimed. Though it had been claimed at a high cost.

Something rattled in Eren's chest as he looked across the small clearing in the forest where they had staged the final push. A spark of his fighting spirit attempted to ignite his body into moving, convinced they was still a fight to be fought, but no matter how he concentrated, Eren couldn't feel any lower than his neck and could only just move his remaining arm. And besides, his comrades were beyond help.

Jean, maybe the bravest of them all, fist clutched against his chest as he lay prone, face marred with blood but not pain. He looked calm, at ease, as if he were simply sleeping. He was most likely holding his most precious possession, Marco's bone fragment everyone pretended not to know about. Jean had fought valiantly until he was thrown to the ground. He had come so far from being the cynical teenager who just wanted to get himself safe within the first wall, and Eren felt a pang of regret that he hadn't tried harder to be more amicable to him. But then again, amicable had never been Eren and Jean's style.  

Sasha and Connie, together until the end. The inseparable pair who died trying to protect each other. They lay a few feet away from each other, fingers reaching for the other's hand. Connie had been bitten in two, yet had still tried to drag himself to where Sasha lie bleeding out from a severed leg. Eren couldn't bare to see them any more and moved his gaze away.

To Historia, draped over the still steaming form of Ymir, the Dancing Titan. The two that made up the most formidable tag team in military history. They had died with their arms wrapped around one another and Eren's heart cried out for them. There had been no chance for them to explore the life together they had only recently discovered they both wanted. 

Steam was also rising from the two figures obscured by their slowly vanishing titan carcasses. Reiner and Bertholdt, the Armoured and Colossal Titan, the enemies who chose humanity and their comrades over the home they yearned for together for years. They had atoned for their crimes and gone above and beyond their duty, sacrificing themselves in humanity's cause.

Eren's sea green eyes shimmered with tears as his gaze fell to those closest to him, his best friends... his family.

Armin's pale blonde hair, tinged with red, falling around a delicate face that had always looked too young for this life. Armin, the boy everyone sought so hard to protect yet had proved himself one of the Scouting Legion's finest. The soldier that had served under the tutelage of Lieutenant Hanji and Commander Erwin, and devised the mission that would save the human race. He had died after taking out a 10m class titan only to have a deviant leap for him and toss him like a ragdoll to the unyielding ground. The grotesque angle of his neck wasn't visible from where Eren was propped up against one of the giant trees of the forest and for that he was thankful.

A few feet away from Armin, in a desperate attempt to reach their life long friend they had always fought so hard to protect, was Eren's sister. A girl that proved to Eren that you didn't have to be blood to be family and had become the strongest warrior second only to Lance Corporal Levi. The girl who's smile Eren treasured the most in the world. Eren muffled a whimper as he took the sight in. There was no smile now. Mikasa had no blood to taint her sheet white face. After fighting harder and longer than anyone else, Mikasa had been taken down when a titan snagged the wires of her 3DMG and sent her into a tree. Eren could only guess she had died of internal bleeding and he prayed it wasn't as painful as it sounded. 

Eren's eyes fluttered closed as he tried to find the peace people always assured each other overcame you when you were close to death as Eren knew he was. He wasn't sure he believed it existed. Any time he had held a comrades hand, or cradled their broken bodies to his chest and been their anchor whilst they prepared to meet their maker, there had never been any peace. They had fought, tooth and nail, to hold on, clawing at Eren's shirt, begging for answers he didn't have. It looked anything but peaceful.

Eren didn't realise he had passed out until a sharp slap across his face brought him back to the harsh, vivid plain of reality with a strangled gasp. It was a struggle, suddenly, to differentiate between the bright colours of the waning day. He could see the sky aflame in brilliant red as the sun began to set in its burning gold halo and could think of no reason he shouldn't just watch the horizon until the darkness claimed him again.

"-en! Eren!" A voice called for him, sounding too far away to warrant an answer. A hand yanked his face down and Eren found himself staring into steel grey eyes, wide in fear, and tried to make sense of why they were there. 

"Say something you shitty brat!" The voice was desperate, so far from the deep bored-sounding drawl he recognised. There was a powerful surge of emotion that Eren swore he felt reach the very tips of his fingers and toes, then swiftly remembered he couldn't feel what little appendages he had left. His eyes grew wide as he forced himself to focus, fighting off the darkness that persisted at the edge of his sight.

All at once Eren's field of vision expanded and he could finally see who was in front of him. His heart sang. A muffled cry, part relief and part elation, fell from his lips as he met his Corporal's gaze.

"Eren..." Levi breathed, clearly thankful his brat was conscious. 

"Levi!" Eren cried out, though his voice was much weaker than he expected. "You made it." He could see the Corporals eyes flitting frantically over Eren's form, taking in the damage and the gravity of his situation. 

"You're not healing..." Levi sounded broken. 

Eren used as much strength as he could muster to lift his remaining hand to Levi's cheek. The skin was cold and slick with perspiration. The simple touch leeched the tension from Levi's body and he leaned into Eren's palm, covering the young soldier's hand with his. Levi looked to him and Eren gave a soft smile. 

"Not this time." He was eerily calm in stating his own death. Levi moved closer to him, forcing himself not to see the gore that was once a body he had worshipped and loved. Instead he focused on Eren's eyes. The turbulent sea of blue and green that had always expressed Eren's emotions better than his words.

Eren noticed how Levi winced and hissed in pain as he crawled over next to him against the tree, lifting his arm and slotting himself beneath it, against Eren's intact side. All the while, the Corporal kept one of his arms secured tight around his stomach, hand pressing firm into his side, as if he was holding himself together. Levi's head lolled against Eren's shoulder and Eren bit back a sob. His intuition had continued to serve him well and Levi sighed heavily in defeat. 

"Looks like I'm going with you brat." Levi tried to inject some of his usual venom into the nickname but it fell short. He tilted his head to watch Eren's expression. pain coloured his features and tears cut paths through the dirt and blood on his cheeks. Levi took a deep breath and removed the hand from his side, letting the blood flow freely past his shaking fingers. The wound was too deep. There was no recovering from it.

He caught Eren's eyes as the soldier's gaze rose from Levi's injury, eyes swimming with grief. A silent agreement passed between the two. They didn't need to put into words the decision they had just made. They simply gave a small nod and a sad smile to one another. Eren was numbly surprised to note his wounds had begun to bleed again. It was as if his body had refused to give up until Levi was with him.

They would die together before the day was up.

Levi turned into Eren's still warm body, placing a hand on the boys chest, ignoring the gore below and the pain that surged through his side at the movement. Eren's grip on Levi tightened.

"I'll find you again." Eren said quietly after a moment. 

Levi smiled and leant up to stroke the line of his soldier's jaw, thumb tracing his lips. A small smile quirked beneath his gentle touch. With strength he thought had left him, Eren pulled Levi closer and higher against him so their faces were level. The Corporal could see the fight for consciousness in the young soldier's cerulean irises. 

Levis hand slid up Eren's clavicle and around to the back of his neck, fingers fastening themselves in the hair at his nape. He moved closer until Eren's nose brushed his. He could feel how heavy and difficult breathing was becoming for both of them. An insurmountable sorrow welled up inside of him and the levee broke. The tears he had been holding back trailed down his face as he sucked in a ragged, broken breath. Eren's hand found the back of Levi's head, fingertips toying with the buzzcutt he had always loved, and he brought their foreheads together, fighting the urge to sob like a child at the unfairness of it all.

Why did it have to be this lifetime? Why would fate bring them together in a world where titans were chomping at the bit to tear them back apart? Why did the paradise eren had found with Levi, the safe haven they had created for themselves together, have so little time to be explored and cherished?

Eren's chest heaved with the weight of it all.

"I'll find you again, no matter how long it takes." 

"I believe you." Levi murmured then seemed to steel himself and repeated it more firmly. "I believe you Eren." 

Levi pressed a soft kiss to Eren's lips, knowing that if there was anything he wanted to take with him wherever he was going, it was the feeling of this infuriating brat's lips against his. They broke apart, Levi burrowing his face into the side of Eren's neck as Eren nuzzled against his Corporals temple in return. As they were, Eren and Levi would be able to feel when the other stopped breathing. Eren kept Levi firm against his side, secure in his one sided embrace as they both bled life into the roots of the tree below them. 

It turned out to be the first and last time Humanity's Strongest and Humanity's Last Hope got to see the place where the sun sets as the peaceful quiet of darkness set in and all was still.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so this fic idea was prancing around in my skull causing emotional havoc all up in my grill so I had to get it out and I thought it would be generous for me to share the pain so there you go...


End file.
